WHERE'S MARVEL ?

My kids had their own version of Where is Waldo, with our dog Marvel.

Can you spot our very large dog?

SOCCER SUPERSTAR

Ethan is 6 years old. This is his 3rd season to play soccer. The first one does not count because it was indoor soccer (6 games ) and the field was the size of my den. No , I do not have a large den, the field was tiny. He never scored his first 2 seasons.
The first game of the season was last week .His team lost the game 2 to 1 but he scored the only goal. He was so proud ! We were so proud ! It is like a switch has been flipped in his brain and he gets it. It is really fun to watch your child have fun doing something. Now we are not the parents who are in some kind of delirious denial that any of our kids will get a scholarship for sports. We do enjoy watching them find something that they enjoy.

He is in his victory stance in the picture !

John Matthew is excited to be adopted!! Beware ! this is a very professional video !

(Yes, my baby has on a bow tie)

ADOPTION DAY!

This week has been a whirlwind for our family! On Tuesday we found out that we would be able to adopt our baby on Friday! Wednesday we went to the Cps office and our baby was moved from a foster placement to an adoptive placement. We had so many people jumping through hoops to get this adoption finished this week

We have had the privilege of working with a Great CPS worker. I know everyone has his or her own opinion of cps workers. Here are the facts we know about these people, they are not paid much money, they work long hours, and they deal with crazy people who have done crazy things, most of them really seem to care about kids, and like in any profession you have those that are good workers and those that are not great. We have loved our worker on this case. We feel so blessed we got to work with her. She really wanted the best for our child.

Anyway, Thursday night I got everyone’s clothes together and ironed (I am funny about ironing) Matt and I both could not sleep. It was a strange yet somewhat familiar feeling. I had all 3 biological kids with c-sections and so I always knew when my babies were coming. This night kinda felt like that. We were excited to have the whole thing finalized. We were so excited for him to have our name. For us to be able to say he was ours. To go to the doctors office and they do not call out some random name when it is my baby’s time to go back, they will call out the name we gave him instead. On the flip side we know him, we were there when he got his first tooth, and when he said his first word which was Ummyummyumm (His word for yeah food), and when he took his first few steps, which was this week! He has seemed like our baby from day oneYet, the whole week has seemed surreal! We believed this was what we were supposed to do since fall 2006. It has been a long journey for us. We do feel so blessed, because we know there are others who do not have any children and they long for even one to call their own.

While this has been a long journey, we have been so blessed by the body of Christ! I will save that long post for another day.

So Friday we went to the courthouse and the whole thing took about an hour. It was too easy! A few papers to sign a few minutes before the judge and he is ours. I could not help but cry when the judge said his name.

I could not help but think about the picture on spiritual terms. Our father has chosen us (all believers in Christ) to be his kids. He plucked me out of my crazy life and put me in a new place and in a new family. I now have a new identity in Him, the old has gone and the new has come. That is the story of my baby and the story of my life.

People say to us,” you are so great to do this”, we are not great, we are sinners saved only by grace! Yet, we serve a great and awesome God! Who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask.

I am getting old !

I turned 40 years old today !

Do you remember when your mom and aunts turned 30 years old or 40 and you thought, Wow ! they are soooo old ? Well, I do ! I have been in major denial that I am turning 40 ! I am having trouble even typing the number ! Last night I went to bed knowing when I wake in the morning I will be old !

I woke up this morning to our family tradition , which is cake for breakfast ! Matt bought me White Chocolate rasberry truffle Cheesecake from the Cheesecake factory. This was a great way to start any day !! My cute family had cards and gifts for me ! My entire day was filled with calls and emails from people I love ! My precious Husband made me one of my favorite meals- shrimp boil ! He is so good ! Needless to say , what started as a day filled with self- pity and fear of old age , ended with my heart being changed and me being thankful to be alive and thankful to be surrounded by so many priceless blessings. Here are 5 of them !

Back to school with 5 kids

We started school 2 weeks ago ! For a homeschool mom this phrase takes on a very different
meaning ! Besides school supplies , we get to buy all the text books and plan all the lessons. This year I have a sixth grader , third grader , first grader and my two little ones. It can appear to be impossible to be organized and have a clean house and school everyone. Here is how I do it! Not perfectly, but with Gods grace I am trying .

When I first started homeschooling I went to a homeschool fair and the Lord (really, it was Him) took me to a random book I found at a book booth. The book by Steve and Teri Maxwell is called" Managers of their homes ". Let me say this, if you have more than 2 kids and you are home all day, you need to buy this book. If you homeschool your kids and do not have this book, you must buy this book ! Can you tell I love this book!
Here is the idea in the book, the family who wrote the book have many children and they were very organized. They asked 20 of their friends would you like to use our schedule and plans for running a home and see if they work for you ? The book is their plan and their friends thoughts about the plan and how they tailored the plan to their family. There is copies of schedules in the back of the book. As a foster mom and a homeschool mom, my family is always changing , but one thing remains, I still must get my job done !

The Maxwell's are a humble and amazing family who really desire to bring glory to the Lord. Their website is titus2. I just bought" Managers of Their chores" and I am so excited to have a great plan in that area of our home. I would recommend any of their resources .

Anyway, Especially if you are just starting to homeschool this is a great resource to help you get a plan in place, and that seems to be half the battle sometimes.

Our Adoption Journey

Our story began fall 2006 when my husband and I were taking biblical counseling classes. We heard a sermon that changed our lives. Voddie Baucham ( Voddiebaucham.org) a fantastic preacher out of Spring ,Texas, preached on Centrality of the Home. We were brought to our knees in absolute conviction. We knew we would need to change some things in our home. We began making preparations for those changes. I was working as a preschool minister at a large Southern Baptist church. I quit my job, we pulled our kids out of public school and began homeschooling them and we started the process of becoming foster parents in hopes of adopting.

Our timeline:

Fall 2007-January 2008 licensed as foster parents

February- 1st placement baby boy, still at the hospital due to the drugs in his body. We visited him everyday for 2 weeks and found out the day before we brought him home that an uncle would be coming to get him instead. We were new at this and we were crushed.

March 15th-2nd placement- a baby boy and his 2 year old sister. Precious children! We were in love with these kids we made our requests know to the Lord that we wanted to keep them. This was not the plan! They left 2 months later.

Mid July - We get a phone call about a group of kids who were removed in a drug raid and they cannot find a place for them. They all come here for almost 2 months and leave to go with grandparents.

We tell our agency we would like only adoptive placements.

March 2009- Baby boy (D) 3 days old born on drugs , probably adoptable. Arrives on Monday.
Friday of that week we get a call about another adoptable baby boy M. He arrives the next Monday.

Mid May baby boy D leaves.

Late May we get matched to an adoptable 2 yr. old boy. He arrives to be a part of our family.

As of September of this year Matthew will be an official part of our family.

In November our Q will be adopted!

Now it may seem like a simple process , however we have been submitted on probably 50 kids within the last year. We have been very close to getting other adoptive placements. It is a journey of faith and trust. Thankfully we trust a soverign God and we know He has a plan. It has been exciting to watch our family grow and blossom .

We are so thankful to get to adopt these boys ! We have learned so much about ourselves and our family through this process!